Globe Trot: Chechnya a breeding ground for terrorists

The city of Boston is under lockdown as a manhunt for the remaining suspect in Monday’s marathon bombing continues. The FAA this morning also closed airspace over the city. A timeline of events shows all that’s unfolded since authorities released photos of the two suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, brothers reportedly from Chechnya shown in photographs carrying backpacks that match the descriptions of those containing the bombs placed near the marathon finish line.

Chechnya has been a breeding ground for terrorists, and the long-running Chechen conflict has increasingly involved radicalized fighters with links to al-Qaeda.

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf was taken into police custody today ahead of a scheduled court appearance on treason charges. His arrest marks a dramatic break with a political culture in which military rulers have remained untouchable. And it represents a poor calculation on Musharraf’s part, who returned from self-imposed exile in March and now finds himself in the hands of judges he once deposed.

A U.S. missionary pilot based in Mali is missing. Jerry Krause, a 25-year veteran of Mission Aviation Fellowship and now Sahel Aviation, was en route from South Africa to Mali when his plane disappeared April 7. Searches in the Gulf of Guinea and elsewhere have found no wreckage or emergency locator transmitter signals, and Krause’s family believe he is alive. Their website has the latest updates.

Presidential elections results in Venezuela remain in doubt, as election officials agreed Thursday to an expanded audit of results. The losing candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, has refused to recognize the results of the election and called for a recount.

The latest issue of WORLD is out, with coverage of the Boston bombings, a profile of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a dramatic story on the first woman to successfully reverse her medical abortion, and my take on President Obama’s plan to reform U.S. humanitarian food shipments overseas.